Tex Winter's Genius Inspires Chicago Offense

When they write the history of the Chicago Bulls, Tex Winter might be an arcane footnote, lost in the air of Jordan and the hair of Rodman. He deserves better.

"He is my mentor," Phil Jackson said, "in the grandest sense of the word."

"What you see is genius at work."

Indeed, obscured by personalities and celebrities is the fact the Bulls are a wonderful basketball team, grounded in team concepts, hard-working, sharing, unselfish. A throwback, really, to a time 50 years ago when Tex Winter first plied his trade.

Outside of Jordan and Scottie Pippen, the Bulls' personnel borders on ordinary. They are not as deep as the great Laker and Celtic teams, but they might play the game better.

The Sonics can't double-team them because the Bulls have such large and consistent spacing, move constantly without the ball, and wait for Jordan to get his shot, with every other player prepared to take it if he doesn't.

There are few isolation plays, those boring and predictable two-man games where 60 percent of the team clears the court to do nothing.

The Sonics knew not only who the Utah Jazz wanted to have the ball, but where they wanted them to have it. They have no such opportunity to gang up on the Bulls.

The real genius is probably Jackson, understanding the needs and wants of Jordan, Pippen and Rodman, blending them with Luc Longley, Toni Kukoc, Steve Kerr and Ron Harper, getting them to play defense like demons.

But the offensive architect is Winter, 74, who coached Kansas State to a No. 1 ranking in the 1950s by beating Wilt Chamberlain at Kansas.

He coached Washington in the late '60s. He retired from college coaching in 1983 only to work the past 10 years as an assistant with the Bulls.

The offense the Bulls run, the so-called triple post or triangle, was the subject of a book Winter authored in 1962 from a coach he had in the 1940s.

"Phil was searching for a concept," Winter said. "He didn't want to wear out Michael running isolation plays, and having come from playing for the Knicks, the team concept was exactly what he was looking for. Phil listened to what I had to say."

The genesis of this Bull team actually began in the '70s when Jerry Krause, the general manager, was a baseball scout for the Chicago White Sox.

Winter was coaching at Northwestern.

"Jerry would come by and talk basketball by the hour," Winter said. "He wanted to learn the game. He told me he was going to be a basketball general manager someday."

His boss with the White Sox, Jerry Reinsdorf, bought the Bulls and put Krause in charge. Krause talked Winter out of retirement to be an assistant coach.

Which was fine, except Stan Albeck, the coach in 1985, had other ideas. Winter languished on the bench. Then Doug Collins took over.

"He listened," Winter said, "but he really didn't know what to do with me. You'd like to think you are a vast reservoir of knowledge at my age, but I don't think Doug wanted to be confused."

Jackson was coaching the Albany Patroons of the CBA when Winter was struggling with Albeck and Collins. He joined Collins' staff in 1987, and the relationship with Winter began.

Jackson knew intellectually what he wanted, and Winter knew how to draw it up and coach it. They spent a summer coaching a team together in Los Angeles and talking basketball. The men and their philosophies clicked.

"Phil doesn't have the big ego a lot of coaches do," said Pete Newell, who coached against Winter in the '50s and is a longtime NBA observer. "He lets Tex run the offense and Jimmy Rodgers (former Boston head coach) the defense. Phil cares more about results than glory."

Winter runs the offensive part of practices, which he likes. "The fire is still there," he said. "I love coaching and teaching. When the games come around, well, I take a lot of notes to occupy my mind. I guess I was a head coach too long. I really don't like the games."

Winter left Washington in 1971 for the NBA, enthralled with the early years of the Sonics, excited to return to Southern California, and tired of butting heads with the UCLA Bruins, who got the league's only tournament berth back then.

Newell offered him a job coaching the Rockets, who were then in San Diego. Before Winter coached his first game, the Rockets had moved to Houston and Newell had resigned.

Three years later, Winter was at Northwestern.

He learned the triple post while playing at USC, under Coach Sam Barry. His 1944 teammates included Bill Sharman, coach of the 1972 Lakers.

Winter saw a decline in the game during the '80s as coaches worried more about recruiting than teaching, more about shoe contracts than strategies.

"The old coaches, Pete Newell, Phog Allen, John Wooden, had strong philosophies about how the game should be played," said Winter, "and Phil Jackson feels the same way."

With a little help from an old friend.

Want to comment or pass on an idea? You can contact Blaine Newnham by voice mail at 464-2364.